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In the year of 1993 Pär Johansson
was playing in a band called Dawn of Darkness.
Things moved slowly and the band did not
progress much what so ever, mostly because
of the fact that most of the members were
more involved in other projects. Thus started
a brainchild to form in the plans of Pär.
He wanted to play in a real extreme band
with people sharing the same vision. As
time went on he got rather occupied by his
solo project Belsemar, and the plans for
what was to become Satariel was lying pretty
still for almost a year. Eventually Pär
discussed his idea of a new band with Mikael
Degerman (also he a former member of Dawn
of Darkness, tired of nothing happening)
and Magnus Alakangas. They all joined forces
and in short a couple of songs were done.
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At this time they went in the vein of the original
idea - as brutal as possible that is - and was
rather primitive, quite inspired by bands such
as Darkthrone and similar bands. No drummer was
originally used when composing the first songs,
only programming.
As this is a very boring way to play they took
Mikael Granqvist (from The Moaning) in as a drummer.
Something which made the band change it's musical
direction quite a bit, as he could not play very
fast at all, much because he was a guitarist and
definitely not a drummer to begin with. A demotape
("Thy Heavens' Fall") was recorded in
1994 containing songs of mid-tempo black metal.
Not much to mention about it nowadays. Satariel
had at this moment in time not quite found their
own direction and was technically very limited
in their composing.
The demo did anyway lead to an offer of a record
contract with Impure Creations Records from France.
As the deal was not that good Satariel chose to
refuse it and keep searching for better deals.
During this time the band played around the cities
of northern Sweden quite some which led to a growing
awareness of how limited they were by Mikael Granqvist´s
drumming performances. After quite some strange
turns a new drummer was found in Andreas Nilzon
(from The Moaning also). The funny thing was that
everyone in the band thought Mikael Granqvist
was on terms with this, and that he was to play
second guitar from hereon. Well, it soon got clear
that everyone except Mikael Granqvist knew this.
He did not have a clue about these plans, and
thought he was the drummer all until at a drunken
event the band discussed the last rehearsal with
their new drummer. At this time Mikael Granqvist
was not too interested in continuing in the band
(which might figures!).
Though there never was any real hard feelings
from any part regarding this. As the mess cleared
Satariel was ready to record their next demotape
which came to be known as "Hellfuck"
demo (which Dan Swanö later on picked as
name for the Infestdead album). This demo started
to show a totally new dimension of the band, and
got a very good response from magazines and fans
around the world. It did also result in a couple
of offers to record deals, but as there always
seemed to be something crappy with the offers
also this demo resulted in zero deals. More gigs
were done and Satariel was broadcasted on swedish
national radio P3 when they opened for At The
Gates among other events. Yet frustrated over
not getting a decent deal and the coming and going
of several members as second guitarist, they once
again decided to put some new songs on tape, resulting
in "Promo '96".
This tape once again showed a more distinct direction
of the band and got the band voted among the ten
best unsigned bands ´96 (Satariel got third
place) by swedish major metal magazine Close-Up.
There soon came an offer from Pulverised Records
for an album deal. It was not much better than
previous offers, but the band decided to go for
it anyway, as it sure would be better to at least
put an album out rather than recording yet another
demo. Around this time Andreas Nilzon left the
band due to lack of inspiration and motivation
for Satariel. Robert Sundelin, who at the time
also played in Necromicon, immediately replaced
him. In Robert they found a new force for the
band and things progressed very positive. Before
the recording of the album they felt that a second
guitarist would be preferable, as they had been
playing with only one guitarist (Magnus) for the
last months.
Mikael Granqvist was asked once again if he was
more interested this time. And that he was. Once
more the original four members were gathered to
strike down on the world, now with addition of
Robert. So in 1997 they entered legendary Sunlight
Studio with Tomas Skogsberg to record the debut
album "Lady Lust Lilith". The album
once more showed a band more and more forming
their special brand of melodic death/black metal
and turned out really great. Due to Pulverised
the album did not hit the shops before 1998 though,
but was met by reviewers around the globe with
mostly very good words. After this things started
to go slow, which may seem a paradox. But as their
label did anything but distribute and promote
well, it might not be that strange. 1999-2000
was spent doing gigs here and there rather sporadically,
and it was quite silent about Satariel for this
period of time.
Tired of nothing moving forward Pär finally
decided it was time to find another label, as
all confidence in Pulverised Records was gone.
So in the winter of 2000 Pär and Magnus compiled
some new songs which they hoped would get them
signed to a bigger and better label. A promotion
CD was sent to a couple of interesting labels,
but the first copy went earlier than the others
to Hammerheart Records, as Satariel wished to
get a deal with them the most. Based upon other
bands experiences it seemed a good label, and
Pär had also had some dealings and contacts
with them previously during the years. To Satariel´s
great joy Hammerheart responded immediately offering
a new deal. The band decided to use some different
studio apart from the more common as Abyss and
Studio Fredman for their next album to get a more
personal and better suited sound and production
this time.
So in May to April they recorded their upcoming
release in Dug-Out Studios with producer Daniel
Bergstrand in Uppsala. It turned out amazing with
a more mature and balanced direction of their
far developed melodic death-metal. Also, Satariel
hooked Messiah Marcolin (vocalist from Candlemass
& Memento Mori) to the recording, which was
quite a happening as all the members spent their
early teens as big Candlemass fans.
The time that followed was spent playing some
gigs here and there, some festivals and a european
tour 2003 along with Necrophobic and Impious.
All was great in other words. All until negotiations
about recording budgets for the upcoming album
"Hydra" stranded with Hammerheart. There
were no hard feelings between the band and the
label, but it was agreed to go separate ways.
Satariel immediately found a new partner in greek
Black Lotus Records, who offered the budget the
band requested straight up.
Thus; in 2004 Satariel once again entered Dug-Out
to record "Hydra". The session was guested
this time by long time friend Lenny Blade (ex-Hypnosia(R.I.P.)
for some excellent screaming parts and a few beers
and talks of "the good old days" back
in Boden (where they all originate from). When
the recording of the main things was done, the
band moved on to conclude the recordings in a
few other less well known studios; additional
vocals and keyboards was put down in Designless
Deity Studio and Hector Media, to mention two
of these. Guest guitar solos by Simon Johansson
(Memory Garden) was also added. All in all the
recording was by far the longest in Satariel´s
history, as it stretched it self over a period
of more than six months. In late 2004 the recordings
were all complete. By this time Black Lotus had
declared they had financial problems, and that
the band was free to leave if they wanted to.
And they did in the favour of Cold Records/Regain
Records who signed Satariel right away.
In 2005 "Hydra" is released upon the
world. With a very typically original and undefined
sound, as only Satariel are capable of creating.
For the first time in their career a real professional
video has been made for one of the songs on the
album, totally done with 3D-animation.
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Line-up:
Pär Johansson Lead and backing
vocals
Magnus Alakangas Lead & rythm
guitars, synth/programming
Mikael Granqvist Guitars and backing
vocals
Mikael Degerman Ibanez Bass
Robert Sundelin Drums
Home: www.satariel.com
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